European Poker Tour -- Michael Tureniec Wins Copenhagen Main Event

Tureniec won the top prize worth €496,271 after defeating Per Linde in the Heads-Up Final

The 2011 PokerStars European Poker Tour Copenhagen no-limit hold’em main event reached a conclusion today and the champion is Swedish professional Michael Tureniec. He took home €496,271 and his first EPT title. His career earnings now stand at $3,422,518. Tureniec came very close to winning a EPT title once before, when he took second place at EPT London in 2008.

Other notable finishes included the runner-up showing from perennial chip leader in the event, Per Linde. The fellow Swede took home €328,612 in second place after falling against Tureniec. An eighth-place finish was booked by Finnish professional Juha Helppi, who was awarded €39,755.

Read on below for a recap of the action that took Tureniec to the title. The next EPT event is the Snowfest stop in the Austrian Alps. That tournament will run from March 20-25.

Here is a look at the chip counts when the final table began today in Copenhagen:

It was the most well-known professional at the final table who was the first to fall, when Helppi picked the wrong time to hold pocket queens. John Eames woke up with pocket kings and he hit a third king on the flop to send Helppi home in eighth place with €39,755. Just 20 minutes later another player was out and it was once again Eames who scored the knockout. Andreas Dalle Molle pinned his tournament hopes on Q-J suited but once again Eames was armed with pocket kings to win the hand. Molle took home €60,357 in seventh place.

The bust outs kept falling quickly when Tureniec scored his first elimination of the day just 15 minutes later. He held pocket fives and Mudassar Khan was all in with A-J. The board brought no help and Tureniec won the coin flip. Khan was awarded €80,476 in sixth place. Nikolas Liakos was able to double up after that but he wasn’t able to avoid elimination just a short way down the road. He held A-8 against the pocket sevens of Tureniec and the Swede won the classic coin flip to eliminate Liakos in fifth place (€100,595).

Tureniec continued his strong run with another knockout to take the tournament down to the final three. Kevin Iacofano was the victim in fourth place and he took home €134,127. Tureniec had flopped trip tens when the American decided to make his move with a pair of sevens and his tournament concluded.

The battle for third was a lengthy one and when the dust settled Eames was the odd man out of the final heads-up match. He had gone on a great run to make it to third place on the final day, courtesy of some well timed pocket kings, and he increased his prize earnings to €187,778. On his final hand Eames held K J and he was up against the A Q of Tureniec. The board ran out K 9 5 A 7 and the final match was set.

Heads-Up Chip Counts:

Michael Tureniec — 9,510,000
Per Linde — 3,885,000

Linde moved all in early in the final match but action was quiet during the first stretch of heads-up play. Tureniec held his large lead until Linde managed to double up with A 5 over the A-8 of Tureniec on a K J 4 6 Q board to grow his stack to 5.63 million. Tureniec edged back out in front again after that but then Linde doubled again, this time with pocket queens, but his stack was still under 4 million after the hand.

It looked like the final might play late into the night, but things came to an abrupt end around 8:30 p.m. Tureniec bet 225,000 on the button and Linde raised to 600,000. Tureniec reraised all in and Linde made the all-in call. Their cards:

Linde: 7 7
Tureniec: A J

Board: 5 3 2 J 4

Tureniec won the hand and the EPT title along with €496,271. Linde was rewarded with the runner-up prize worth €328,612.

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